David Slade Talks ‘Daredevil’ Reboot, ‘Deadpool’ & ‘Wolverine’ Rumors

There’s something amusing about how David Slade’s decision to helm the third film in the Twilight series, Eclipse, ultimately (in part) led him to snag the job of rebooting Daredevil for Fox – as well as being rumored as a contender to helm not only Deadpool, but also The Wolverine, now that Darren Aronofsky has stepped down.

Plot and casting rumors for the new Daredevil pic have popped up recently, and many a fan is already speculating that Slade could replace Aronofsky on Wolverine 2. It’s appropriate, then, that the 30 Days of Night filmmaker has spoken out – or, rather, tweeted – and provided some perspective on these matters.

Slade started off by offering the following (via Twitter) with respect to his Daredevil reboot:

So without breaking confidentiality, yes Daredevil, we have a great outline for a very strong character-driven take on Mr Matt Murdock. It will bare no relation to the previous Daredevil movie in any way.

We are at early planning stages and have not yet discussed any cast.

Early rumors about stars like Robert Pattinson or Garret Hedlund already being “serious” contenders to play the titular blind warrior in Slade’s Daredevil were quite clearly pure fluff and nothing more. That’s not to say either fellow isn’t being eyed as a prospective Matt Murdock behind the scenes (or that the reboot won’t feature a younger incarnation of the character), but their involvement is not all that likely at this stage.

As for speculation that the Daredevil reboot could be based on Frank Miller’s “Born Again” story arc – it’s still possible, though unlikely, if Slade ends up fashioning the film as an origin tale.

The most recent word on the Deadpool movie came from would-be star Ryan Reynolds, who insists that the project is still alive. Slade’s never been pegged as a legitimate contender to replace Robert Rodriguez as director on the film, but he still dropped the following tidbit about the whole matter:

Love DEADPOOL, was never engaged in the (quite fantastic) script, last I heard studio was looking at comedy directors. None of my business.

Slade was apparently a serious contender to helm the Wolverine sequel – so much so that Fox reportedly narrowed the field down to either Slade or Aronofsky before they selected the latter for the job. Now that the director’s chair is vacant again, has the former been approached once more?

If he has, then Slade is keeping his mouth shut on the matter:

WOLVERINE, there have been no discussions about this project to date. Interesting to see what will happen with that as the excellent script by Chris McQuarrie was set largely in Japan.

Since Slade is fully immersing himself in the development of the Daredevil reboot, and still has plans to make The Last Voyage of Demeter (a.k.a. Dracula retold) in the future, it seems unlikely that the filmmaker will be recruited to replace Aronofsky on the new Wolverine movie.

On the other hand – Slade demonstrated with Eclipse that he’s capable of not only working fast and efficiently on a franchise tentpole pic, but capable of doing it well. Depending on whether or not Fox still wants Wolverine 2 in theaters next year, fast and efficient is exactly the type of director they’ll need. But will anything really be as good as what Aronofsky brought to the table?

Look to hear more about the Daredevil reboot and a new director signing on for The Wolverine (and hopefully Deadpool as well) in the near future.